802.11 Wireless Problem with Atheros 5424/2424 on Current AMD64

[Sam Leffler]

eculp wrote:
> On an Acer 5520/5679 laptop, I don't see a way to get wireless 
> working.  I'm running:
>
> 8.0-CURRENT-200712 FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT-200712 #0: Sun Dec 30 11:33:37 
> CST 2007
>
> The dmesg shows it detected but can't attach:
>
> ath0: <Atheros 5424/2424> mem 0xf2200000-0xf220ffff irq 19 at device 
> 0.0 on pci5
> ath0: [ITHREAD]
> ath0: unable to attach hardware; HAL status 13
> device_attach: ath0 attach returned 6
>
> pciconf -lv shows:
>
> ath0 at pci0:5:0:0:        class=0x020000 card=0x04281468 chip=0x001c168c 
> rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
>     vendor     = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
>     device     = 'AR5006 family 802.11abg Wireless NIC'
>     class      = network
>     subclass   = ethernet
>
> Is there something else that I can do?  If you can confirm that this 
> isn´t supported, I will go out a buy a pcmcia card.  If anyone knows 
> of a list of 802.11 cards that work with amd64 even if they are usb, 
> would also be appreciated.
>
> Thanks for any help,

I believe this card is an XB63 (not A/B/G but only B/G).  If so then 
Atheros contributed support to the madwifi project in the form of a 
patch against the i386 (only) hal.o file; you can retrieve it from their 
svn repo/web site.  I am working on an updated hal build that includes 
support for this and other newer ath parts but it's blocked by a 
showstopper bug.  No ETA.

    Sam